It is the schoolgirls' delight, who familiarly toy with
its demon, seeing only favor and prettiness in its elegant
measures. In it "the refined, gifted Pole, who is accustomed to
move in the most distinguished circles of the French capital, is
pre-eminently to be recognized." Thus Schumann. Forsooth, it is
aristocratic, gay, graceful, piquant, and also something more.
Even in its playful moments there is delicate irony, a spiritual
sporting with graver and more passionate emotions. Those broken
octaves which usher in each time the second theme, with its
fascinating, infectious, rhythmical lilt, what an ironically
joyous fillip they give the imagination!
"A coquettish grace--if we accept by this expression that half
unconscious toying with the power that charms and fires, that
follows up confession with reluctance--seems the very essence of
Chopin's being."
"It becomes a difficult task to transcribe the easy transitions,
full of an irresistible charm, with which he portrays Love's
game. Who will not recall the memorable passage in the A flat
Ballade, where the right hand alone takes up the dotted eighths
after the sustained chord of the sixth of A flat? Could a lover's
confusion be more deliciously enhanced by silence and
hesitation?" Ehlert above evidently sees a ballroom picture of
brilliancy, with the regulation tender avowal.
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